Home Assistant

Nelbert

If they are the standard aqara ZigBee motion sensors they work well. Quick response to motion and with a timeout for motion (1 min) and occupancy (8 min). So you can use the occupancy one for bathroom where you want a longer timeout.

You can get them on Amazon for slightly more than they are on AliExpress but you'll also get them way quicker....

I'm a few of them, a few of the IKEA motion sensors and the Hue outdoor motion sensor.....The hue is the only one that gives me trouble....

Plan to get the EP1 or similar mmWave presence sensor for one or two rooms though. As much for the tinkering as anything else.

WildCardDoW

Cheers to you both!

I'm only getting started. Need to start looking into designing proper automation but I figured for that it makes sense to wait for sensors and rad valves. Most other behavior can be handled through manual input or schedules (i.e. lights on after sunset).

I also need to figure out a good display system (including a nicer dashboard, seen the ways to improve that) - like go with a tablet (or two) or what.

WildCardDoW

So, I've discovered that HA doesn't publish the correct message to the stat all the time (leaves out parts of the payload that are needed etc.).

https://github.com/greeeny101/Hive-Thermostat-Zigbee2MQTT/blob/main/SLR1/config_automation/hive.yaml

This user has resolved it - but can someone tell me what the hell these yaml files are for? Like I know in general but not sure how these specific ones work. I've asked the owner of the github but maybe others here have encountered this and are willing to help point me in the right direction.

EDIT: A user helped me so, OK - it's just abour where to place the files that threw me - new to this.

10-10-20

What's the story with the Aqara Temp and Humidity zigbee sensors eating batteries on HA? Straight out of the box they are sending updates every 5 mins, even if the differential is less than 0.5 degrees C.

The FAQ says: "If the temperature humidity and atmospheric pressure varies a bit only, data will be reported once an hour. If the temperature variation exceeds 0.5℃, the humidity variation exceeds 6% and the atmospheric pressure is no less than 25Pa, data will be reported instantly."

Battery went from 100% to 55% in 1 week. These are my first zigbee devices, I don't see how to modify the update frequency from the controller.

ECO_Mental

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120281172#Comment_120281172

I wouldn't worry too much just yet you only have them in a week what you might find is the battery will stay at 55% for weeks I don't think the battery level indicator is all that accurate and mine went down quick but settled into 60-50% and have remained there for weeks. It is also reported as a fairly frequent basis as well

cromelex

I have a bunch of the Aqara temperature and humidity running with zigbee2mqtt for almost a year now and the batteries are still going. Just ignore the battery percentage they are reporting.

kaisersose77

For anyone with a bk-g4 type gas meter, this 3d printed holder along with the insides of an aqara door sensor can be used to get the gas usage readings. Need to source the 3d holder myself but going to try it.

https://www.printables.com/model/255890-aquara-gas-meter-holder-europe-bk-g4

Jonathan

Similarly, for anyone with a Virgin Media TV360 settop box, this HACS integration works perfectly and creates a media entity for box.

https://github.com/Sholofly/lghorizon

Depending on what power savings mode you have the TV360 box set at, the entity may show up as unavailable while turned off.

tnegun

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120377157#Comment_120377157

Printed this evening and have just installed the meter thank you for the heads up! I had an extra door sensor for last the couple of years with no purpose until now. I'll know in the morning if its in range of the hub.

kaisersose77

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120378068#Comment_120378068

Well, how did you get on with this? Working ok?

tnegun

Yes, it seems to be working the first mount didn't appear to work or hold the reed sensor close enough,I tried this one and it did the trick. I haven't had time to verify accuracy yet but its measuring consumption.

kaisersose77

Just tried it myself and seems to be working for me with the holder I linked to. Will see how long battery lasts but it's easy in this case to replace battery. I read before on reddit where someone had same setup and battery was still going after 2 years.

tnegun

I've one of these on a garden office door remote from the house and the battery is going strong 18+ months later so hopefully we get something similar out of it.

BoardsMember

I've had generous support from a regular contributor via another thread and this has led me to start want to explore Home Assistant. We're re-wiring right now and I intend to have deep boxes and neutral at each switch so that I have flexibility in what I can buy and control. I'm all Hue right now and it's very expensive! This is my rollout plan:

• Get existing “smart home stuff” working on Home Assistant - Hue lights, Hue sensors, Hue dimmer switches.
• Add some Ikea/Zigbee lights and get them working on Home Assistant.
• Get HA linked up to Google Home so I can use voice to control HA - on/off, scenes, automation etc

Is the above a sensible approach?

First things first though, what hardware to use! I’m tempted to dive right in and buy ODROID-N2 or Home Assistant Yellow rather than play around with VM hypervisor etc. I’m reasonably comfortable with tech but I'm not a linux man so getting the basics working will help build confidence. Any thoughts or recommendations on hardware?

WildCardDoW

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120464132#Comment_120464132

Hey, very sensible.

Basically get a HomeAssistant device (either one you mentioned) and a Zigbee Hub - you may already have the Philips Hub which will do for majority of cases but I'm just going with what I know, so a Sonoff ZB Dongle E is a good choice.

There's lots of stuff about HA and built in voice stuff and linking from Google Home which in the long term is viable. Short-medium term I would say look into linking HA to GH and accessing HA via duckdns (so you can check it from anywhere - obvious security concerns with that however!). Really short term option is look into NabuCasu (from the HA dev team), this is good as it can help setting everything up quickly as you figure out the medium and long term needs.

Yellow or Odroid will both be fine and very easy to setup, I went with an RPi400 myself due to availability.

I'd also reccomend Zigbee2MQTT as the main driver, it has a bit more support though I understand that ZHA is catching up and some prefer it.

I found it very easy to pair IKEA bulbs and IKEA seem to be very cost friendly, as well as being easy to collect from a local shipping point (DPD-Collect). I only have a small number of Hue bulbs and had to use a workaround to get them paired but working fine now as well.

Good luck!

paulbok

IKEA bulbs pair fairly easily with a Hue hub ( as long as they are near the hub, pair as close as you can and then locate where needed). The reason I would suggest this, is to keep your Hue lights/ hub working as a backup in case you Home Assistant server goes down for any reason, at least you can control the lights separately.

ECO_Mental

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120464132#Comment_120464132

I am about 18 months into my new build house and I am running HA on a PI4 with an SD card. My advice is to start like you say start small and work out from there. I don't have too much automated at the moment a hand full of lights. Its a learning process especially working out automations to make sure they work all the time consistently, nothing worse than the missus or the kids not being able to switch on a light and them shouting at a google home, you will not win browny points.... and will set you back.

I started just putting some Energy monitors on my Main board (ShellyEM's) then got a few Zigbee temp sensors. I only then went and automated the light in the garage and the utility room. Made sure these work as they should and if they didn't it wouldn't bother anybody.

Im not too convinced with Zigbee...Ive had problems with temp sensors dropping off and a number of switches. When it works its great but it is prone to interference as It runs on 2.4 GHz same as Wifi and is very low powered. I had to move all my 2.4 GHz wifi channels to channel 13 and power down their signals. But I am digressing

BoardsMember

Anyone have any issues hooking up Hue dimmer switches and motion sensors within HA? Reading some stuff online where people using z2m or zha in HA and Hue sensors and switches being unreliable, so moved back to using the Hub.

I'd like to use Hue switches to control both Hue lights and non-hue stuff but wondering now should I use an alternative switch and retire the Hue ones.

ECO_Mental

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120466891#Comment_120466891

I use ZHA with a Sonoff 3.0 Zigbee dongle. I only have a few hue bulbs and they work ok with it no probs. Dont have any hue switches.

As in my previous post the jury is still out with me and Zigbee but I think that might have been down to my environment. I have 5 WFi APs in my house (4 inside one outside) I also had Unifi running a wifi optimization every night. I think, since Zigbee runs in the 2.4 GHz band this was interfering with the zigbee connections and dropping some sensors and switches. I have stopped the wifi optimization and moved all my 2.4 channels to be well away from the zigbee. It seems to be running ok now. Also my zigbee router is in one corner of the house, they say to have it central best as possible as my signal has to make a lot of jumps.

What I'm saying is it might not be down to what you are running either ZHA, MTTQ or a Hue hub that makes things unreliable its down to the network set up and its not right. Here is my zigbee set up....it can get complicated with many jumps. That saying its is very responsive

paulbok

I have two ZigBee networks in two buildings that were too far away from each other to try and bridge. Have ZHA with a conbee usb stick in one and a ZigBee to ethernet coordinator using mqtt in the other. I've had no issues with them that weren't of my own stupidity. Don't have any Hue devices through them, as mentioned I prefer to keep the Hue hub working on its own in case HA goes down.

I have a couple of Lidl smart power strips in use as repeaters as much as switches which really helped the networks.

paulbok

Lidl have their range of smart gear back in stock from May 15th. Will be picking myself up an extension cord and led strip for my daughter's room.

They might be overdoing it though, they have smart air fryers, kettles, kitchen scales and tower fans 😂

Nelbert

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120563526#Comment_120563526

Possible to link this stuff to HA without the need for the hub?

paulbok

If you have ZigBee setup (zha or mqtt) you can connect their stuff easily. Same as Ikea stuff.

The kettles etc are via WiFi so don't need a hub

Nelbert

It's the smart tower fan I'm most interested in.... Seems to really like it's WiFi and doesn't need the gateway.... No works with homekit logo beside it in the Lidl booklet...

Raoul

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118719771#Comment_118719771

Over a year later. Any idea if this was done?

Tree

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120578842#Comment_120578842

Not even a little, there's a new thread nearly every quarter about it too. You just gotta DIY with a Shelly EM or other such monitor. You can get the info a day late from the ESBN website, but that's more for archival than anything useful.

arrianalexander

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120569988#Comment_120569988

Interested in fan as well , want to be able to control it when not in house , want to turn on before I get home to cool room as I work night shift .

Wonder will this be possible .

Ha Long Bay

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120580802#Comment_120580802

You could use any fan and a Sonoff S26 to automate it.

https://itead.cc/product/sonoff-s26-wifi-smart-plug/

I am using it to turn a fan on when a solar inverter hits a certain temperature.

Raoul

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120580718#Comment_120580718

Yeah, I saw you have been answering a few of these. Why do you think the day late data isn't useful?

I think it is but just more difficult.

I was able to use the data to figure out that I may actually be better with a smart meter and using a plan that in corporates day, night and peak hours. That's before changing any usage habits to take advantage of the night rate.

To find out what items are using the electricity at particular times is obviously more difficult though as you would have to note something down manually when you use it.

Tree

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120581985#Comment_120581985

I want to be able to make calculations about turning on and off devices based on import/export. I use a different sensor instead but would have been nice to get the ESB actual values live to compare.